Live commentary on the third and final hour of pitches at Startup Riot. Fourteen companies to go.
eWide Networks
Online
local reference to help students get a more balanced college experience
and propel themselves into a career they're passionate about is what
they say in the brochure. What the first slide says is "events
calendar." Easy to create, organize, integrate, and share. I don't
get why it is different than Gcal. Freemium model.
Kabbage
Provides
established online sellers access to capital they can use to grow their
business when they list products for sale. Big market. Great simple
explanation of a difficult to grasp concept. Use deep data to loan.
Raised $1.4 million. Launching in 60 days. Strong presentation style.
Chatfe
A vocal social network. Currently in private beta. Remember what David Skok said about identifying blocks to people adopting your service? It applies here.
The Plan Is
Web app that makes it easy to but together a what-if based plan
based on deadlines. Cool idea. Good presentation. Not sure if there
is a company here but I am not the target. If you are the beta is
available at theplanis.com/sur
Abundant Closet
An online virtual closet and automated personal stylist. Again not
in the the target. Company is a CapVenture grad and the presentation
reflects that experience. Raised $300k, want to close an additional $900k. Will need revenue in these parts to do so.
itsFound.org
A simple, secure free lost and found tool. A Startup Weekend company. Need some marketing help. ImHonest seems a lot more straight forward.
Savont
An online financial that allows users to create ROSCAs. Nice
opening. Great opening. Nice clean slides. I don't know what a ROSCA
is. Do you?
Uvester.com
Web app to manage real estate communications, documents, and data. It may be those real estate types to move away from their fax machines. Great presentation.
GetUnbored
Start by not reading your presentation. It is a city and group guide that gives users picture based suggestions instead of text. Big name partners such as Citysearch and Ticketmaster. Complex business and revenue model.
TooMah
Interviewing made easy for companies that do have volume hiring. Places like call centers. I know this company and like it a lot. Good concept, sound business model. Looking to expand customer base and an investment with the amount unstated.
Medivity
GI instrumentation with a focus in the minimally invasive market. Device is in final prototype. Want to sell or license to a larger company, the only company thus far to mention exit strategy.
DoLeaf
An online marketplace where people can find and buy plants from independent garden center. It's Etsy for plants. Revenue model is a percentage commission on each sale made. I coach the company.
Softmaxx
Creates software for cellular machine to machine modems and smart devices focusing on robust connectivity, remote management, and scalability. Out of Raleigh.
MakeSmallTalk
Concise entertaining articles to help create social conversations. Not sure of the state of the company, the team or the market.
That's a wrap. Now we are going to vote for winners.
Craft ice cream for restaurants, hotels, and caterers. They want to be the Ben & Jerry's for hotels. Not looking for investment, have ten customers and are profitable. Nice pictures. I just ate and am getting hungry. Will be looking at follow investment in a year. Do not get the tech play here.
Marketing automation that detects and tracks prospects. Love the energy. Met the team before. Like what they are doing. Business SaaS model. Have customers. You might be hearing more about this one.
Next generation message board software. Shotput Ventures company. ATDC is using the software. Works well. SaaS model. Looking for $150k seed round. I have been coaching them a bit during my day job.
Helps team members make and keep commitments within email. Have filed for a patent. Have paying customers and $1 million in funding. The founder and former CEO of EDGAR Online just joined as CEO. Winner.
A real-time receipt management mobile to SaaS solution for small to mid-size businesses. Nice opening. Founder Jen Bonnett was eTour CTO and founder of StartupChicks. Freemium model. Getting ready to go to alpha. Company was started at Atlanta Startup Weekend.
An Internet based platform where users can get quotes, compare, and purchase individual health insurance plans. They make commissions when a consumer purchases a plan. "This isn't the valley. Get a customer." Looking for talent to help move things forward. I have been working a bit with the company.
Patent pending (eight of them) technology to convert coal into synfuels. Seeking $1 million for pilot. Making a gasifier. Claims 10x cost reduction. Nice serious presentation. Until he said "shit" right in the middle of it.
A social web utility that helps college students discover and share all of the events and specials happening in their city. Good energetic presentation style. Cool name. Reminds me of Hapnin. Facebook is waning? I don't think so. Sales heavy advertising model may be a challenge. Looking for investors to expand.
Visual accessory tool for computers that works like an overhead projector. Big market, not sure what they are doing or how they fit in. Do not have a revenue model just yet. Selling product online. Self funded to date. Sounds like a two person team. Advice to all: drop the dot com.
Makes it easy for people to find and share the best blogs and blogosphere trends. Good use of humor to poke fun at self. Have a paid iPhone app. It is my understanding they have sold quite a few of them. Launching an API. Three person team. I have been working with them a bit for a while. Like it.
Digital signage company. Big, fragmented market. I have played in that sandbox. Tough. Good presentation. Looking for a CEO and $250k. Product in test phase.
Helps organizations save time by making meetings more effective and providing visibility into meeting effectiveness. In beta. SaaS model. Coached founder in CapVenture. Nice pivot from the concept he had then.
A simple web based email system for use by seniors and their caregivers. Named after the founders grandfather. Product in use. Good press coverage. Bootstrapped. Looking for intros into assisted living facilities.
A social study network for students. CEO Phil Hill has past success. Good team of developers working on a concept that was developed at Emory and Georgia Tech. National Science Foundation and Georgia Resource Alliance funded. Have commitments with partners that have access to 350k students. Going to charge students via SaaS. One of the best of the day.
Today is Startup Riot.
Startup Riot is a is pitch event where technology startups present
their companies for three minutes using four slides. This year it
moved to the opulent and spacious Egyptian
Ballroom at the Fabulous Fox Theatre.
The Fox is an Atlanta institution and the move there is representative
of how the event has grown in stature. Startup Riot was on NPR this
morning and Robert Scoble of Scobleizer fame flew into town for the event.
This is the third year of the event and it continues to grow.
An event driven digital receipt system. Good use of props. Like
electronic receipt concept. Have customers and revenue. Have unique
technoloigy. Did not mention team. While wanting money did not make a
specific ask.
Provides admin tools and a customer player to distribute combinations of media in one syncronized assemblage. Led by Ben Dyer. Don't totally understand the problem.
Manufacture phototherapy machines and accessories for the treatment of skin disorders. Reading slides is a major issue. No passion. FDA approved. Seeking unstated amount for marketing. Not my area of expertise so I can not comment on market need.
Helps non-profits and urban planners communicate more effectively online. Great presence. Not sure if there is a real problem or market but what do I know. Raising unstated amount of funds. Product not complete.
Bookkeeping app for small business owner or free lancer. Targeting QuickBooks. He is right, they suck. Good use of humor. "We suck the least." Nice clean looking app. Been around three years. Good third party integration. I am going to try the product. Want money to "topple the evil QuickBooks."
Allows wine bloggers to gracefully offers to sample wines, attend industry events, and offer product giveaways. Good presentation skills and storytelling. Sitting next to two wine guys. They don't think there is a problem.
A centralized real estate marketing service. They sell virtual tours and to newspapers in third tier markets that need an online real estate presence. They have complete product, customers, and revenue. I think he said profitable. Woot!
Uses needle free continuous, non-invasive technology to give diabetics an alternative to invasive glucose testing. Seems like a real problem. Have patents. Not sure how large the market might be. Over a year away from launch. Need investors to do that.
The place where online video producers and fans alike can design, purchase, and sell merchandise based off their favorite online videos. Have launched. 100,000 unique visitors. Cash flow positive. We make "kiss ass merchandise." Rock on.
On online marketplace where you can connect live with top experts and instructors in interactive one on one and group classes. "A world of experts in the palm of your hands." Did not explain the business. I coached Sidney. I need to do better.
Developer of iPhone and ITouch apps. Created oBo Agent a fee based service connecting writers to agents and publishers. Raised $250k. Founder created "Trading Space." Did not explain business.
Helps people make new business or social connections both online and off. Recently relocated to Atlanta. Not seeking funding. Interesting play. Merging social with dating. Big market that they might be able to carve out a niche.
Crowdsourcing music discovery by sorting the catalogs of every artist of all time based on the opinions of thost that know them best. Great passion. Releasing product next week. Have revenue via affiliate marketing. Looking to raise $250k. Busy space.
A marketplace aiming to make vacation rentals a more reliable alternative to hotels by offering online bookings, reviews, and more. Nice slides. Big market. Even busier space than music. With a few big established players. I don't understand how they standout.
Brings analytics to career management. Nice presentation manner. Good slides. Interesting concept. Have filed a patent. Need to get some customer validation. Currently collecting input from the same for development of alpha.
A fresh approach to social media analytics. A Shotput Ventures company. They raised a follow on round. Adam has good presentation skills. Opening beta today. Could have explained business model better.
It's 6:28 am. I have not had coffee, and my wife is out of town so I am taking care of my 10 and 11 year olds. But I am going to pop something out real quick like here.
Yesterday I wrote a little piece about the inordinate amount of technology startup events in Atlanta and how a little thoughtful coordination might be of help. Despite the fact the majority of actual practicing entrepreneurs appeared to agree with my assessment I was called harmful and ignorant. I can assure you I am neither and the subject seems to be good for both conversation and traffic so I thought I would give a little more specific example.
Pitching events. These are events where an entrepreneur gets up on stage in front of a panel and gives a presentation on their company. The panel (or crowd), which is motivated to appear smart, then proceeds to rip the entrepreneur's presentation to shreds because that is what they are supposed to do. Sounds like fun no? To be fair some of these pitch events are great for getting
entrepreneurs ready to pitch for real at CapVenture, GRA/TAG
Business Launch, Startup Riot, and in front of angel groups (Update: Michael Blake rightly points out in the comments that this is the purpose of PitchCamp mentioned below). If the entrepreneur listens and incorporates the appropriate feedback then their pitches do get better.
Well any hoo there is MIT Run it by the Pros, OnStage, PitchCamp (not sure if it is still active so I won't count it), and Startup Gauntlet. There may be more and if so, please comment. But the way I figure it there are at least 27 of these events a year in Atlanta. Do we really need 27? It's fractured and diffused with oh maybe 50 people in the room at best. Instead of that combine forces and have 12 kick ass pitch events that are must attend for the the entire technology startup community so that they can see what is exciting and new. Have prep events for the companies that are presenting. 120 people show up. Boom baby! You got something real.
Today at the sold out SoCon10 I am giving the presentation you see below entitled "Measuring Social Media ROI: An ATDC Case Study."
The genesis of the presentation is twofold. First and foremost in the summer of 2009 there was a lot of talk about how you could not or should not measure the return of your social media efforts. I do not believe either to be the case. Second, Stephen Fleming become the acting director of ATDC and decided we were going to change strategic direction. He announced this at a Monday staff meeting and wanted it implemented in seven days. That time frame pretty much limited our marketing efforts to online and we exclusively relaunched via social media This provided a great opportunity to demonstrate that social media ROI could be calculated and how to go about doing it.
The topic of the night was developing a marketing plan. That is a really challenging task to undertake for a new venture. Too many unkowns. Unkowns that are best solved via the customer development process. Regardless it is a business plan competition. They have to write something. Hopefully the audience walked away with some good thoughts on how to write a rational well thought out marketing plan that will help them in the competition and move their business along. More importantly I hope they got the message to get out of the classroom and go talk to customers.
SoCon, the Southeast's premier social media and social networking conference is quickly approaching. In its fourth year, SoCon10 will be taking place on January 29th and 30th. The event kicks off on Friday night with a networking dinner at Maggiano's that has been fantastic in previous years. On Saturday things move over to Kennesaw State University for a day full of discussions.
SoCon10 is getting down to brass tacks with its theme of "Enough Theory; Now Show Me the Money and the Love." Keeping with this theme I am leading a break out session called "Measuring Social Media Marketing." The session will be a case study of the relaunch of ATDC, how social media was used in that effort, how the campaign was measured, and how others can use the same methodology to measure their social media efforts.
Should be a lively discussion and a great event. Get yourself registered.
Atlanta Startup Weekend is less than a week away from starting. Over 75 people have signed up. The total registrants may reach 100 (registration closes on Wednesday). And we have some great local sponsors in MailChimp, JungleDisk, and A Small Orange that are going to be offering some resources to Startup Weekend participants.
With that said, there is a dirty little secret about Startup Weekend. Actually it's
not confined to Startup Weekend. It applies to lots of well known
startup related programs. Startup Weekend, TechStars, YC, the GRA/TAG
Business Launch competition. The further along you are when the
programming actually starts, the better your chance of success when the
program ends. So what does that mean for Atlanta Startup Weekend?
If you have an idea start developing the idea into something that you can easily share on opening night.
Below is a nice tutorial.
Exceptions for Atlanta is we are limiting the first round pitches to 60 seconds and not allowing slides.
If you have an idea it also would not be too bad an idea to start
recruiting your team before the event starts. As an example, the
idea for Twitpay was well socialized last year before the weekend began
and several key team members knew that was what they were going to work
on before they walked in the door on Friday night. So recruit people
that you know and want to work with to sign up for the weekend so they
can work on your project.
If you don't have an idea go to the idea wiki and chime on the ideas that others are submitting.
It's time to get started. If you have any other insights or questions bring them on.
People are good. It's a fundamental belief of mine. People should be friendly and courteous. It is our obligation as members of a somewhat advanced civilization to treat other individuals with dignity and respect. To be
cooperative, direct, honest and open. To also be graceful with measured words
and actions.
I say this as I ponder the New Media Atlanta conference that took place last Friday. If you have not heard by now it was, to say the least, a quite interesting event. Seems that a little app called BackNoise become a very important part of the proceedings. Allie Sullivan, Paul Chaney (twoplaces) and Stacy Williams, with this thoughtful article, have nice summaries of the proceedings. All of these folks are missing a few fundamental factors that led to the digression that they describe.
I have led and participated in my fair share of conferences in my day. I understand how hard it is to put something together. I understand how thankless the task can be. I applaud Matt Fagioli and Brad Nix for taking upon themselves to put New Media Atlanta together. But while I know Stacy and respect her a great geal, I am going to respectfully disagree with her. The conference was not great. It opened slow. With an hour of sponsors trotting across the stage. It started out so slow that the first scheduled speaker, Jeff Turner (who by the way did a masterful job moderating an afternoon panel), got up on the stage and said, to paraphrase, "the conference sucked thus far" according to BackNoise.
It really did not suck, but the slow opening led to people distracting themselves and many of them ended up on BackNoise. Once people got there they did not leave. They did not leave the back channel because the conference content was too basic for the audience. A negative comment vicious cycle ensued.
But you can't blame this on a simple Web application. BackNoise is merely a thing. A thing that lets anyone create back channel conversations with zero friction. I like to think about it as event specific Usenet, though others prefer an IRC analogy.
Regardless, just like Usenet, IRC, and any other online community, it is up to the community members to set acceptable standards. The New Media Atlanta community failed to set standards that many of the participants deemed to be acceptable. But you can't blame that on BackNoise and the presence of anonymity. Much of the commentary on the Internet is carried out under anonymity and unidentifiable pseudonyms. Many complained of the anonymity. Few called out participants that were carrying out what they deemed unacceptable behavior. Even fewer, including those that are now blaming BackNoise and anonymity, took to posting under a user name.
Most just stared and watched the train wreck. They just watched, without trying to push the car off the tracks. They watched without calling attention to the wrongness of what was transpiring. The organizers did not participate or guide the back channel in any meaningful way.
I am one of the very, very few that put my name on some comments (due to my sense of self importance if you were to believe the back channel). I did this to try and diffuse the situation. And yes, like many of the speakers, I was attacked. So what, there is nothing to fear from those that are anonymous.
When it came time for Chris Brogan to get on stage what he did was brilliant. He confronted what he feared the most head on. He shed his presentation (if he had one) and projected BackNoise on the stage screen during his speech.
Are they some things that could be done to improve BackNoise and make it a more conference friendly? Sure, I have been telling Keith Mcgreggor, the creator, for some time I believe this to be the case (BTW what is better about telling someone they suck using your real name rather than anonymously). And Keith is currently actively seeking ways to improve BackNoise based on what has transpired.
But if you are feeling icky and sick as a result of what happened at New Media Atlanta, don't blame it on BackNoise. Look in the mirror. Next time a back channel pops up at a conference that you are attending don't just watch. Take an active role in setting the norms and standards on what you want the community to be. Don't complain after the fact. Do something in the moment to lift the conversation. Do something good.
The opinions expressed here are mine and mine alone (with the exception of comments by others of course). They do not represent the opinion or position of any other person on entity. All postings adhere to my personal values.
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